Medical malpractice, mistake prevention, and compensation

Clinicians' fear of malpractice litigation is the most significant obstacle to the open reporting of medical mistakes. Without open reporting of medic al mistakes, however, root cause analysis of mistakes cannot be done, thus undermining efforts to implement safeguards to minimize the occurrence of f uture mistakes. Efforts to prevent medical mistakes, therefore, must first directly address clinicians' fear of malpractice litigation. In this paper, we explore the relationship between the current malpractice system and cli nicians' fear of litigation. Ultimately, we argue that both the prevention of medical mistakes and the goals of malpractice litigation itself will be better served if substantial malpractice reform is undertaken.